Tag Archives: L. Tessler

• Engineering was the hardest four years of my life. I studied seven days a week, usually till late into the evenings, with only Friday or Saturday night to unwind. Physics didn’t come easy to me. Semiconductor theory, special & general relativity, radio communications, quantum physics, nuclear science – all of it was hard. I had to find a way to visualize what I was learning, and that was my biggest challenge. I nearly failed physics in the second year, while enrolled in the Engineering Physics program! To this day I honestly believe that physics professor would have failed me. I can’t say for sure, how I passed, but, but I’m certain that he let me go because he saw I had passed my other courses. I scraped by with my lowest grade ever: 52%.

• I was petrified of failing any course. Not for fear of failure, but because I knew that if I failed any course, it meant adding an additional year to my studies. From 19 students, I managed to graduate in the top half. During the week of my graduation I visited the Dean of Engineering, Gary R. Purdy and thanked him for accepting me into the engineering program. According to the Top 500 Universities in the World, there are four Canadian universities in the top one hundred. McMaster University ranked 90 in 2014.

• After graduation I realized there weren’t many options for me. I could have pursued a Master’s degree, which was a logical direction for some of my colleagues. That didn’t interest me. I struggled so much in the undergraduate program I felt I didn’t have the brain capacity. Another option was to go for an MBA, but wanted to get some work experience first. Also, my graduating class entered the middle of a recession in 1991. So applying for any engineering job was a crazy affair. I recall submitting my resume to a job that had 2000 applicants. In hindsight I wasted two years before realizing I should have just gone for that MBA while I still had the cognitive capacity. By the time time I wrote the GMAT, I had missed that boat, acing the math, but fairing poorly on the English part.

• Physics was my passion as far back as high school. It’s thanks to Mr. V. Cantlon, my grade 13 physics teacher from Aldershot Secondary School. He was also my favorite teacher from middle school. The subject wasn’t particularly my strong point, but I felt I enjoyed the subject enough to pursue it into my undergraduate studies.

• My other favorite teacher was Mrs. L. Tessler, my ninth and eleventh grade English teacher, giving me the passion to express myself in words. Mrs. Tessler had the most wickedly teaching voice. It hypnotized me every time I listened to her, going as far as falling in love with her voice. I always wanted to impress her with my writing skills. But I could never seem to exceed an 80% grade on my essays. It wasn’t until I read the words of a 90% English student that I realized what it takes to get to the next level.